Manipulating Overture

Jay Daley · 05-08-2006, 08:20 PM

I'm curious about something.

How easy is it to manipulate OV? Can someone just do lots of queries for a name over a period of a few weeks to bump up the OV rating of a domain before trying to sell it?

Can an unscrupulous registry start a huge programme of upping OV scores to try and increase its sales? Not that I can think of any registry that unscrupulous of course.

LeeOwen · 05-08-2006, 08:26 PM

Well I used to get several thousand for one term regularly, last month nothing, very strange.

winnie · 05-08-2006, 08:53 PM

The simple answer is Yes, someone can type their domain into one of the Overture Partner Search Engines a few times a month to artificilly generate an Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing as they are now officilly called in the UK) value. Any sensible person buying traffic domains would not base their valuation on Overture number, but rather audited unique visitor figures from the parking program the domain is hosted on.

I have seen this artificial inflation of value done on .com domains being sold on US forums, only newbie domain buyers fall for it.

I think i have seen a couple of websites that claim to store historic Overture data for nearly every popular internet search, but I dont recall the site names offhand (I do recall their fees for accessig the data being quite expensive - similar to Hitwise).

aqls · 05-08-2006, 09:29 PM

Yes, I have been done by it. Someone on this board manipulated it hugely before flogging me a traffic domain.

I also have a ov domain w/ext 3500 2 months ago, 0 this month. No type-ins.

Also bear in mind that ov has an awkward way of sometimes lumping plural and singulars and sometimes not, and sometimes including typos as the non typo and sometimes not, and sometimes including words like London and sometimes not. (e.g. london heathrow airport is the same as heathrow airport, yet london gatwick is different from gatwick).

-aqls-

rob · 05-08-2006, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aqls

Yes, I have been done by it. Someone on this board manipulated it hugely before flogging me a traffic domain.

name n shame time

*gets out the stocks*

aquanuke · 05-08-2006, 11:57 PM

Its hard to know sometimes. Caught a ov w/ext 350 that had bugger all traffic few months back. Cant see why anyone would have bumped it as it had been suspended for 3 months.

Still showing ov w/ext 155.. still zero traffic

deconstruction · 07-08-2006, 11:49 AM

another problem with ov is it shows how many times someone does a search for the domain.

if they search for the domain and the correct site shows above or near yours then you wont get the traffic.

stender · 07-08-2006, 07:50 PM

Another thing you have to watch is people have domains in their signature and can have the same one on many forums which will create hits. But as soon as they sell it, they remove it, traffic goes!

denchomsky · 07-08-2006, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stender

Another thing you have to watch is people have domains in their signature and can have the same one on many forums which will create hits. But as soon as they sell it, they remove it, traffic goes!

What like ukresidential, nileholidays & citywhizz for example!

stender · 07-08-2006, 10:16 PM

Yes that could be the case if i'd ever sold a domain!!!

05-08-2006, 08:20 PM	#1
Jay Daley Nominet Staff Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Nominet UK Posts: 344 Domain Trader Rating: (0% / 0)	Manipulating Overture I'm curious about something. How easy is it to manipulate OV? Can someone just do lots of queries for a name over a period of a few weeks to bump up the OV rating of a domain before trying to sell it? Can an unscrupulous registry start a huge programme of upping OV scores to try and increase its sales? Not that I can think of any registry that unscrupulous of course. __________________ Jay Daley Nominet UK

07-08-2006, 11:49 AM	#7
deconstruction Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 1,196 Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 22)	another problem with ov is it shows how many times someone does a search for the domain. if they search for the domain and the correct site shows above or near yours then you wont get the traffic. __________________ Click here to sponsor me on Just Giving. \| Click here to see Simons Marathon .co.uk \| Game Consoles \| Call of duty 5 - World at War

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05-08-2006, 08:26 PM	#2
LeeOwen Banned Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Dristor, Bucharest, Romania Posts: 3,722 Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 14)	Well I used to get several thousand for one term regularly, last month nothing, very strange.

05-08-2006, 08:53 PM	#3
winnie Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 33 Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 5)	The simple answer is Yes, someone can type their domain into one of the Overture Partner Search Engines a few times a month to artificilly generate an Overture (Yahoo! Search Marketing as they are now officilly called in the UK) value. Any sensible person buying traffic domains would not base their valuation on Overture number, but rather audited unique visitor figures from the parking program the domain is hosted on. I have seen this artificial inflation of value done on .com domains being sold on US forums, only newbie domain buyers fall for it. I think i have seen a couple of websites that claim to store historic Overture data for nearly every popular internet search, but I dont recall the site names offhand (I do recall their fees for accessig the data being quite expensive - similar to Hitwise).

05-08-2006, 09:29 PM	#4
aqls Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,075 Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 18)	Yes, I have been done by it. Someone on this board manipulated it hugely before flogging me a traffic domain. I also have a ov domain w/ext 3500 2 months ago, 0 this month. No type-ins. Also bear in mind that ov has an awkward way of sometimes lumping plural and singulars and sometimes not, and sometimes including typos as the non typo and sometimes not, and sometimes including words like London and sometimes not. (e.g. london heathrow airport is the same as heathrow airport, yet london gatwick is different from gatwick). -aqls-

05-08-2006, 11:57 PM	#6
aquanuke Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 1,782 Domain Trader Rating: (100% / 10)	Its hard to know sometimes. Caught a ov w/ext 350 that had bugger all traffic few months back. Cant see why anyone would have bumped it as it had been suspended for 3 months. Still showing ov w/ext 155.. still zero traffic

07-08-2006, 07:50 PM	#8
stender Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 954 Domain Trader Rating: (0% / -1)	Another thing you have to watch is people have domains in their signature and can have the same one on many forums which will create hits. But as soon as they sell it, they remove it, traffic goes!

07-08-2006, 10:16 PM	#10
stender Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 954 Domain Trader Rating: (0% / -1)	Yes that could be the case if i'd ever sold a domain!!!